I’m always struggling as an athiest with how to refer to the christian deity in pronoun form. I mean, to me, capitalizing it somehow acknowledges existence or some kind of respect for their deity which I clearly do not have, however it is not my wish to insult people of religion when referring to deity in passing.
What is the rule in general for non-religious types referring to deity in pronoun form?
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., 8.102: “Pronouns referring to God or Jesus are not capitalized.” Some people still do, of course, but it’s becoming old-fashioned.
Well, I have always looked at it as more of a “name” thing than a purely relligious thing.
That is, God as the name of my deity, versus god as the generic name of some sort of deity or idol. Likewise Lord, as in our Christian deity, versus something like “He was some sort of an English lord.” (if that is right, I’m not sure if Lord as a title should not always be capitalized.)
ANY-way, I do not offer this as definitive, just popping in here to say that it is in no way insulting or cheesy to me, personally, if you were always to use lower case, just that it would look a little odd to me.
I’m an atheist who capitalizes “He” beuase I think it looks cool. No other reason.
Ah, heck! Please excuse me! I really did read your post, but the “pronoun” somehow just slipped out of my stupid head. I am so sorry, meant no hijack. :wally
I’d still say the same, though, about, say, “He” versus “he.” It might look a llittle odd to me, but no insult would be taken.
The confusion lies in the fact that God is the name used to refer to the Judeo-Chrisitian god. I doubt that anyone will consider you a believer because of your choices in capitalization. Capitalizing God, when referring to a specific deity is no different, IMHO, than capitalizing Osiris or Zeus.
It seems as if you are asking for opinions
but even so, here is a nice article on things that should be capitalized.
What if you turn the question around and ask if Christians or Jews have a special reason to insist that others conform to their religious beliefs in everyday language and settings to the exclusion of the way different religions treat the issue?
The answer to that question is clearly a no.
It is one thing to wear a yarmulke into a synagogue when attending a Jewish service, but it is another for a Jew to insist that you wear one all the time. (Not that Jews ever do this: merely an analogy.)
If you are referring to the Christian concept of God in a specifically religious context, then a capitalization would be appropriate. But just a reference to the Christian god would not require one. The same would obviously be true for pronouns based on reference to the original. And remember that to an observant Jew, even the word God is disrespectful (G-d is preferred) so that even the Christian preference for the fully-written out word God is not universally accepted by other religions.
In short, it is virtually impossible to handle the issue in any way that would be acceptable to all or to not cause offense to some. Respect your own opinions and convictions, not others, unless the circumstances clearly dictate a temporary exception.
blace81 and Exapno Mapcase, I think the OP was referring to the capitalization, not of the name/title “God,” but of the pronouns used to refer to God.
In older Bibles and religious texts, pronouns referring to God were capitalized (such as “He,” “Him,” and “His”). Today this is not nearly as common. Modern Bibles don’t do it, and it looks somewhat old-fashioned. Some people still do it, especially if they’re somewhat old-fashioned themselves or if they somehow want to emphasize that it’s God they’re referring to; but (as Dr. Drake said) the preferred usage is not to. So of course it would not be insulting for you not to capitalize such pronouns, nor would it imply anything about a lack of belief in or respect for God.
In fact, nowadays the trend, at least in some circles, is to avoid third-person pronouns for God at all. Since God is neither male nor female, it’s misleading to refer to God as “he” (or “she”). So ancients and moderns agree that lowercase “he” is somehow inadequate to refer to the kind of entity God is.
BTW, mrrealtime, you probably should capitalize “Christian.”
Yeah, sorry about that. I missed the pronoun part until I read LivingOnAPlane’s response. Personally, I really could care less if you use “He” or “he”. Has anyone actually taken offense to non-capitalization in this case?
Why?
Since the word “christ” is Greek for “anointed” and is translated from the Hebrew word rendered as “messiah,” it is a title, not a proper name, and therefore does not need to be capitalized. Unless you happen to be a follower of Jesus (called “the Christ” as though there were no other) in which case you capitalize it to show that you believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the ONLY anointed messiah.
If you aren’t a christian, there is no need to capitalize, technically speaking. They ought to call themselves “Jesusians” if they want to have capital letters for their title.
Because wrods derived from proper nouns are traditionally capitalized in English. Hey, there’s an example right there: “England” is a proper noun and is capitalized, and therefore so is “English”. Well, “Christ” is a proper noun (at least in the sense it’s usually used nowadays; originally it was just a Greek adjective), and so “Christ” and “Christian” should be capitalized.
I don’t think Christian is capitalized because it’s derived from a proper noun, but because it’s conventional to capitalize the names of religions and religious adherents.
Yes, and I explicitly referred to pronouns. However, I did so as part of the larger context of the use of capitalizations when referring to god. I see it as one issue, not something that should be separated out.
I’ve moved this to IMHO from General Questions.
samclem
“Christ” has indeed been usurped as a proper noun, whether by honest means or not. I think you would be hard pressed to find someone on the planet referring to possible messiahs other than Jesus when using the term “Christ”, and language is essentially defined by useage.
When you consider that the Jews originated the whole concept, and still believe that the Messiah (<—note capitalization!) has not been born, I think they have the prior claim on the word and the capitalization thereof despite the upstart claim jumpin’ xtians assertions to the contrary. Usage be damned, I say!
“If fifty million men say a foolish thing, it is yet a foolish thing.” --Anatole France
Or, to quote my mother, “if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump off too?” 
When you consider that the Jews originated the whole concept, and still believe that the Messiah (<—note capitalization!) has not been born, I think they have the prior claim on the word and the capitalization thereof despite the upstart claim jumpin’ xtians assertions to the contrary. Usage be damned, I say!
“If fifty million men say a foolish thing, it is yet a foolish thing.” --Anatole France
Or, to quote my mother, “if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump off too?”
Many English translations of the Bible do not have capital letters for “he” and “him” and other pronouns. This includes the New International Version, the King James Version*, and the English Standard Version, to name a few – hardly obscure translations nobody uses. If someone’s offended, ask them to see what their Bible says 
Yes. We capitalize Jews, Moslems, and Hindus; Baptists, Methodists, and Episcopalians; and for that matter, Democrats and Republicans. When you’re referring to a specific group of people like that, it’s a proper noun (or adjective).